I am starting Chapter 35 in the following book. You will be able to read the whole book on the Scott County site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HISTORY OF DAVENPORT AND SCOTT COUNTY VOLUME 1 CHAPTER 35 EDUCATION THE FOUNDATION LAID BY EARLY STATESMEN - A LOOK AHEAD - THE BEGINNINGS OF SCHOOLS IN IOWA - THOSE WHO TAUGHT SCHOOL IN DAVENPORT IN THE THIRTIES - MANY YEARS OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS - ARRIVAL OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL IN THE FIFTIES - LATTER DAY SCHOOLS - MAGNIFICENT HIGH SCHOOL - THE SPECIAL BRANCHES - SCHOOLS OF HIGHER EDUCATION - BIOGRAPHY OF J. B. YOUNG Nowhere in the United States were public educational foundations laid with more breadth and car than in Iowa. From the days of the first message of Governor Lucas, the first of the territorial governors, careful provision was made for the instruction of Iowa youth and their training for good citizenship. The foundations long preceded the superstructure. In an article upon the topic, "Institutional Beginnings," in the Annals of Iowa, July, 1898, Prof,. Jesse Macy of the chair of history in Grinnell college, treats of this feature of Iowa educational history: "As an instance of discrepancy between statutes and history the early school laws may be given. If you ask an early settler in Iowa when this state introduced public schools, he will tell you that the public school system did not become thoroughly established till abut 1854 or 1855. But were there not schools earlier than that? Yes, but they were private schools; or they were partly private and partly public. In each neighborhood, as soon as there were enough children of school age a meeting of the citizens was called, a place and plan for a schoolhouse determined upon, a day set for building and at the appointed time they all came out and built. Then they hired a teacher and kept up the school as best they could. From the earliest territorial statutes one would infer that schools where then established in Iowa free to all white persons between the ages of four and twenty-one. Counties were organized into districts on petition of a majority in the proposed district. School districts were elaborately officered with seven officials for each district, and there were minute provisions for the management of schools. According to the statutes of Iowa, the territory and afterward the state was abundantly and thoroughly supplied with the privileges of free public schools for all white children. The statutes are abundant and, as they are closely examined, one is convinced that they are not merely formal acts which had made their way into records and been forgotten. They are real, living laws, prepared with great care, and revised and made more elaborate at each session of the legislature. Yet, if you turn from those records and study the actual school system of the territory and the state, you will find that the free school was a plant of slow growth; that for years there were no free schools; and the great body of our citizens are under the impression that our public school system dates back only to about 1854. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ IAGENWEB: Special History Project: http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm Gerischer Family Web Site: http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/